Just Back From Afghanistan and Pakistan 6/11

On the web: http://accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=2265
Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
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KATHY KELLY,
JOSHUA BROLLIER
Kelly and Brollier are with the group Voices for Creative
Nonviolence. They are just back from over a month in Pakistan and
Afghanistan. Several articles they have written are on the group's web
page: http://vcnv.org .
Kelly said today: "As violence escalates and the war prolongs, the
question isn't what does the U.S. want. It's what do people in
Afghanistan want. There's real fear of the Taliban, but people ask why
the U.S. invaders and their warlord clients should run the country.
There are an estimated 850 children dying every day (see Save the
Children,
http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/41_a-child-dies-every-two-minutes-in-afghanistan.htm
). Meanwhile, we're spending $1 million per year just to deploy one
soldier."
Brollier said today: "There are serious consequences of these
military operations which the U.S. urges Pakistan to undertake. Last
year, in the Swat Valley, 2 million people were made refugees in ten
days. There are still people living in refugee camps who are now
destitute. The Pakistani military continues to occupy homes in areas
where people were forced to abandon their villages. Most people we
talked to were upset with the U.S. Many feel Pakistan is being pushed
into destructive blunders by the U.S. -- they face the retaliatory
backlash from the military offensives that the U.S. insists Pakistan
must wage, ostensibly to dislodge Taliban groups."
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167